Cotton yarn and method of producing the same.



R. K. CLARK.

COTTON YARN AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME.

APPLICATION FILED JUNEZI. I917.

1 5254mm Patented Jan. 15, 1918.

2 SHEET,SSHEET 1.-'

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5] wuemlfoa R. K. CLARK. 001mm YARN AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME.

APPLICATION FILED JUN-121.1917.

Patentfi Jan.15,1918.

ROBERT K. CLARK, OF WEST SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOE TO THEAMERICAN THREAD COMPANY, OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OFNEW JERSEY.

COTTON YARN AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME.

Specification of Letters latent.

Patented Jan. 15, 1918.

Original application filed April 4, 1917, Serial No. 159,655. Dividedand this application filed June 21, 1917. Serial No. 175,983.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT K. CLARK, a citizen of the United States,residing at West Springfield, county of Hampden, State of Massachusetts,have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Cotton Yarn andMethods of Producing the Same, of which the following is a full, clear,and exact description.

My invention relates to a new and improved cotton yarn and has foritsobject to provide a cotton yarn having a twisted core with afiocculent exterior adhering thereto capable of being used in theproduction of thick and flufiy fabrics, sweaters and the like, of a Warmand soft nature, in which the interstices of the fabric when looselyknit or woven shall be largely filled up with a fiocculent materialadhering to the surface of the yarn and a method of producing the same.Cotton yarn of such nature may be described as flufled yarn, and theaction by which it is produced may be called flufi ing, by which I meanthe partial combing out of enough of the fibers of a strand of yarn toproduce a continuous fiocculent surface thereon, which is securedthereto. I believe such flufl'ed yarn, as well as the apparatus andmethod which I have devised for producing it, to be novel with me.

The following is a description of my invention, reference being had tothe accompanying drawings, which show apparatus embodying mechanicalfeatures suitable for producing my yarn and also show my cotton yarnproduced thereby. In these drawmgs Figure 1 shows a section of yarn;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of a machine embodying apparatus for producing myyarn;

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section of the same.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, Fig. 1 shows a length ofyarn embodying my invention, the same being composed of a looselytwisted core 17, made up of a plurality of strands and having a fluffyand flocculent surface 18, comprising a multiplicity of fibers whichhave ends extending into the strands of said tw1sted core, and free endspresenting a woolly external Surface. The outer ends of these externalfibers are free while the inner ends extend into the strands of thetwisted core so as to be intermingled with the fibers of the strands ofwhich the core is composed and secure the flocculent exterior to thecore. In my cotton yarn produced as hereinafter described, the length ofthe exposed ends of the fibers constituting said flocculent surface mayon the average exceed twice the diameter of the core when the core doesnot exceed onesixteenth of an inch.

In the machine for producing it (Figs. 2 and 3), 1 is a frame carrying acreel 2 supporting a series of bobbins 3, having wound thereon looselytwisted yarn 4. This loosely twisted yarn is made up of a plurality ofloosely twisted strands which are themselves loosely twisted together,the yarn preferably being a two-ply yarn. Mounted upon the frame is aguide tension bar 5, beneath which the strands 4 of yarn pass to agrooved guide-bar 6, from which they pass to other guide bars 7 and 8,the latter being also grooved, and to leather covered nip or pullingrollers 9 and 10 between which they pass. The nip rolls are power-dr venby gearing from the shaft of an adjacent roller 12 reducing from about 5to 1. The tension bar 5 alines the various strands so that theythereafter lie in a common plane and creates enough tension to preventirregularities of pull of the yarn coming 0d and spools bein transmittedto the rest of the machine. %he guide-bars 6, 7 and 8 are shown in theform ofrolls, which may be mounted so as to freely revolve. Between thebars 6 and 7 is a roller 11 covered with projecting needles of springytempered wire so as to have a fiufling or napping surface and betweenthe bars 7 and 8 is a second similar flufling roller 12, the tworollersbeing geared together by gears 13 and the shaft of one of them isprovided with a pullley 14 which is driven by a belt from the motor 15.The wire teeth or needles of these flufiing or napping rollers arepreferably straight instead of bent as in ordinary card clothing and aresubstantially perpendicular to the surfaces of their rollers. Thefiuifing rollers are substantially the erably make, the needlesstraight.

same as in ,regular gigging machines for finishing woven fabrics, exceptthat I p e roller 11, as shown in .Fig. 3, operates clockwise, while theother roller 12 Operates counter-clockwise, so that their movements arein opposite directions, the first roller turning toward the point fromwhich the yarn passes and its movement thus being against or inopposition to the movement of the yarn; The bars 6, 7 and 8. arevertically adjustable and are so adjusted that the strands of yarnpassing over them are in proper engagement with the needle pointsuponthe flutfing rollers 11 and 12 to raise the fiber on the yarnexterior. The bar 7 positions the strands for the two rollers 11 and 12and; acts to prevent the yarn. from getting slafigand entangled in theneedles. The amount of flocculent material formed on the exterior of theyarn can be varied somewhat by changing the positions of the strandsrelatively to the needles by adjusting the bars 6, 7 and 8. The fluffinrollers 11 and 12 revolve at a relatively high rate of speed so thattheir peripheral surfaces move at about the rate of 1,000 feet a mmute,while the yarn passes forward at the rate of about 75 feet a minute, dueto the corresponding peripheral speed of the nip rolls 9 and 10. Theteeth upon the flufling rollers engaging fibers upon the exterior of thestrands partially free them from the twisted strands with the resultthat there is roduced upon the surface of the strands a iiocculentexterior composed of a multiplicity of fibers, one end of each of whichextends into and forms part of a strand of the twisted core, so as to beintermingled with the fibers thereof, resulting in a product which is reresented, as well as it can be, in Fig. I. Eac strand after thisflocculent exterior has been roduced thereon passes between the nip rolers 9 and 10 and is then wound into cylinders or other suitable form byany suitable take-up mechanism 16, preferably a drum winder having asuitable traverse. The strands of yarn as they as from the bar 6 arekept under a light ension so as to prevent the strands from being canhtupon the flufling rollers. The action of t e fiuflin roller 11increases this tension in the strands of yarn that have assed it, butshould not stretch them so tightly as to interfere with the fiufiingneedles getting hold of fibers on their exteriors and partially freeingthe same from the twisted cores. The machine treats a multiplicity ofstrands at the same time, the strands being kept parallel and treatedindependently as the pass between the bars 6 and 8.

Iii producing my yarn I supply a. plurality of separate strands ofloosely twisted multiple-ply yarn to the machine in the manner abovedescribed and subject the strands as they pass between the points on thebars 6 and 8, under the tension as above specified, to the fiuflinaction of rollers 11 and 12 so as to artial y comb out andfree enough ofthe hers extending to the exterior of the untreated yarn to produce thedesired flocculent result. I preferably cause the roller 11 firstengaging the yarn to lo tate in. the direction of the point from which athe yarn comes, 2'. e., 'inopposition to the movement of the yarn, andthe other roller 12 to rotate in the opposite direction. This results ina counter-balancing pull on'the intervening portion of the yarn so thatthe pull necessary to draw the yarn through the machine is not seriouslyaffected by the action of the fiufling rollers and a slack accountof theaction of the fluflin cylinders thereon, with the result that sutantiaily all sides of the strands are subjected to the flufiing 0rnappin action of the Wire needles so that the tends to all sides of thestrand.

The yarn, after being treated in the manner above described, constitutesmy new product shown in Fig. 1.

While I am aware that woven fabrics have been teazeled by machinery, anda teazeled product produced there I am not aware that anyone has devicean apparatus for or recess of teazelin unfabr'icated lengths o yarn, orproduce a length of yarn having a continuous teazeled surface consistingof fibers which were q figinally within a twisted strand, but have beenpulled out so as to be, as in my product,

' partially but not wholly detached.

This application is a division of; myopplicption Serial No. 159,655,filed April 4, 19.1

- As will be evident to those skilled in. the art, my invention permitsof various modiocculent surface exfications without departing from the;spirit met,

core of cotton and a flocculent surface continuous throughout the lengthof the core and comprising a multiplicity of cotton fibers having theirinner ends extending into and forming part of the strands of saidtwisted core and intermingled with the fibers of the strands of whichsaid core is composed and their outer ends free.

3. The process of treating yarn, which consists in passing an extendedstrand of yarn from one point to another and fiufing it continuouslythroughout its length as it passes between said two points so as toloosen portions of its fibers and produce a continuous flocculentsurface.

4. The process of treating yarn, which consists in passing an extendedstrand of yarn from one point to another and flufling it continuouslythroughout its length in a direction opposed to the movement of the yarnand also in the opposite direction as it passes between said two pointsso as to loosen portions of its exterior fibers and produce a continuousfiocculent surface.

ROBERT K. CK.

